All We Can Do

someone wrote "i love you"
on the desk where i sat
as i read black and white
jim crow and all that
like the 14th amendment
and the fight for good schools
and the fight that continues
or so says langston hughes,
"i swear to the Lord
though i still cannot see
why democracy means
everybody but me."

and i laugh for langston,
for what we don't have
but someone wrote "i love you"
on the desk where i sat
as i read brown and black
and the struggle back then
that moves beyond cuba
in the words of guillen
for poesia negra
for the Black artist's name
to "express our individual selves
without shame."

and it's all that we can do

and i cry for guillen
"tengo, vamos a ver,"
i have this education
i have people to care
i have someone who wrote "i love you"
on the desk where i sat
i have me, i have her
i have all that i need to have
but this fight, it continues
no matter how much love calls
no matter where we find it written
sharpies on bathroom stalls

and it's all that we can do

and i fight for my lover
and i fight for myself
with fists made of roses
picked by the rebels
i'm fighting and scarring
and amidst the combat
there's someone who wrote i love you
on the desk where i sat
i write "i love you too"
though i don't know who s/he is
in a world filled with hate
only our love can win

so i love for the better
and i love for the best
i love cause i have to
by the beat of my chest
cause when the whole world shouts
to fight red with more red
i ask what about using yellows
and violets instead?
when i forget my blessings
and the poets i quote
i'll remember that "i love you"
that a stranger wrote.